SUNFLOWERS

Sunflowers...................mmm..............wish there were RAINFLOWERS and that some rain would come our way...............I've been doing my raindance but to no avail...........just 10 mins of a little shower today. I suppose I should really look on the bright side and keep thinking another month and the cooler weather will be on it's way.

The Italians are like sunflowers .......... they live for the sun. They complain for 7 months of the year that it's grey, cloudy, cold, wet and miserable but then when summer arrives and it's too hot, what to they do? they start complaining again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I'm from London, so like most countries in northern europe, we are used to the grey, cloudy, cold, wet miserable weather, and just try to get on with life the best we can, and for me I find it easier to cope with than the heat and humidity that everytime you move the sweat just drips off you. But then again in summer you have the sun and the sea. It's easy to spot northern europeans in summer.................we're all burnt red raw like lobsters !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As the song says ' ONLY MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN GO OUT IN THE MIDDAY SUN '. Looking at it ...I suppose I'm better off than my Italian counterparts..................I'm Ok for 9 months of the year........just the 3 months of summer I'm not too keen on.

Above is a page for scrapbooking I did myself a couple of years back using DONNA DEWBERRY's technique of ONESTROKE PAINTING, I suppose I could also say it's in FREESTLYE scrapbooking style , which has now become very popular . Isn't freestyle scrapbooking what we used to do years ago when there wasn't all the scrapbooking pèapers to choose from.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is FREESTYLE scrapbooking? would love to know your description of it.

ciao ciao
crafty

FORGOTTEN

It's way too hot to do any creative work , my hands are too sweaty and everything just keeps slipping out of them. So I decided to do some clearing up where I do my creative work, I'm not the most organized of people when it comes to my creative work area , therefore I came across a lot of old work that I did a couple of years back.

I found a lot of work I did while I was going through my scrapbooking phase, some pages that are now probably classed as FREESTYLE, COFFEE FILTER ALBUMS, PAPER BAG ALBUMS, CD ALBUMS , MINI BOOKS made from tags, envelopes and photo slides and much more. After that I was mainly into making raggedy and primitive dolls, quilts and doing stitcheries. Above is a stitchery pattern of my own design ( copyrighted) that I did for my sister in Australia, she's had it framed and put in her daughter's bedroom.

It's been such a joy pulling out these old creative works, maybe I just might start doing stitcheries again especially when the long winter evenings arrive.
ciao ciao for now
crafty
joan

WATERFALL

Life is like a waterfall, you drift along like a stream then things quicken up and you become a river getting wider and wider, then a rapid until finally you find yourself on the edge and over you go crashing like a waterfall. Well that's my opinion anyway.

I feel like this especially when I try to help people out in person 1 2 1, telephone, letters or today via e-mails. I don't mind helping people ...listening to their problems, giving advice where needed. Many people tell me that I should be harder as a person in this dog eat dog world, but that's just not me, I'm too weak in character.

The thing that bothers me is when you are taken advantage of, you give someone an idea/s, they use it/them and make a profit from it ....but if you need help they're not so quick to return the favour !!!!! You write to people complimenting them for their good work, asking how life is etc...but they just don't do the same to you , make out they never recieved the letter or e-mails. I know it can happen that things go astray but more than once !!!!!!.

That's why I say life is like a waterfall, I bottle up my feelings and anger until they slowly spurt out, I suppose I should say like a volcano, but I prefer waterfall as I'm a water birth sign and an ex swimmer. My problem is that once I've stopped being a waterfall I become a stream again and the whole process repeats itself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess I'll never learn. Why oh Why can't I be just that little bit more stronger and sometimes just say ' NO ' .

Luckily I have meet many good people via the internet and now with blogs..........now that is a completey different topic...............seems like a competition of who can get more comments than the others !!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL .... well here where I am anyway!!

Photo above is an ATC that I made trying out the technique of incision on plaster. To make the ATC a little more flexible so it wouldn't crack if bent, I adjusted the quantity of mixture .............no I'm not telling ,....that's my sercret !!!!!!!!

from a little feeling sorry for ones self
craft

Ps if reading this and you think I may be aiming the above at you, please ask me and I will tell you ...yes or no...
See I'm getting stronger !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

Those summer nights

Those summer nights
Originally uploaded by craftinitalia.

An ATC made using the techniques for backgrounds and transfers from TRY IT TUESDAY.

MY FIRST QUILTIE

Hi there,
Trust everyone is well. I'm glad the World Cup is over with.........I'm not a fan of football, I'm more for rugby, I'm fed up to the teeth with football, football, football on the television, even my progs had been taken off !!!!!!!.
As Italy has won the World Cup ( congratulations to them ) all I hear is talk of football, football, football.........................maybe I'm the odd-ball out here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
ah well enough football talk.............................

I've decided to try an online course with LENNA ANDREWS via the JOGGLES website, learning to work with fibers and make quilties which hopefully will turn out to be a nice little book and present for someone. This is the first time I've tried anything like this on such a small scale in fabric, I'm used to making collages and ATCs but this is completely different ...................and such fun too. I would never have dreamed of marrying paper and fabric together or using glue instead of sewing ...

Here are the pictures of my first quiltie that I made today it measures 5" X 5", maybe it has take on a HOT colour scheme as here in Italy it's very hot and sticky.